Ozone is one of the most important pollutants in large areas of Europe. There is evidence that the ambient ozone concentrations found in Europe can cause a range of effects to vegetation, including visible leaf injury, growth and yield reductions, and altered sensitivity to biotic and additional abiotic stresses. Since ozone pollution leaves no elemental residue that can be detected by analytical techniques, visible injury on needles and leaves is the only easily detectable evidence in the field. Even though visible injury does not include all the possible forms of injury to trees and natural vegetation (i.e. pre-visible physiological changes, reduction in growth, etc.), observation of typical symptoms on above ground plant parts in the field has turned out to be a valuable tool for the assessment of the impact of the ambient ozone in sensitive species.

In the framework of the ICP-Forest, the Working Group on Air Quality has prepared a submanual for the assessment of ozone injury on European Forest Ecosystems (Intensive Monitoring Plots, Level II). The main objectives are the identification of ozone sensitive species from European forest ecosystems, the assessment of the injury, and to provide an extensive and harmonised photo-documentation of ozone symptoms for these species, and to give information on the spatial distribution of the symptoms.

ICP-Forest Manual:

A general revision of the ICP Forests monitoring manual has been carried out in spring 2010. The updated parts of the manual have been adopted by the programme Task Force on 1 June 2010.

All ICP-Forests manuals are available at http://www.icp-forests.org/Manual.htm

Additional Information:

Submission Forms ICP-Forests:

 

• Following the decisions taken by the Programme Task Force at its 23rd meeting in Zvolen, May 2007, data submission forms are from 2007 onwards provided in one single document for all surveys. This document will be updated annually, if necessary (posted at http://www.icp-forests.org/Manual.htm). Data submission forms in the Annexes of single subchapters of the ICP Forests manual are no longer valid.

• When preparing data for submission, use the following Excel macro to ensure a correct spelling of the scientific names of the species and to obtain their corresponding codes (based on an European list of codes for genera and species): Check species names and codes! before submission with this Excel macro: Click here.

 

FutMon Field Protocols:

• Download Air Quality and Visible Injury Assessment field protocols of FutMon project: Click here.